Baltimore police seize more than 1,100 firearms in 2026 crackdown
Baltimore police say gun seizures passed 1,100 as their midyear report logged 2,530 firearms and 294 ghost guns, with West Baltimore and Druid Hill Park still in focus.
Baltimore police say they have seized more than 1,100 firearms since the start of 2026, a tally that kept rising as officers focused on street-level gun recoveries across the city. Officials announced the figure Sunday, adding it to a year of recoveries that police have tied to drugs, arrests and investigations.
The Baltimore Police Department’s July 1 midyear crime report put the first-half total at more than 2,530 firearms, including 294 ghost guns. BPD said gun seizures were up 139% and ghost-gun seizures were up 92% as the department reported historic reductions in homicides and other violent crime during the first six months of the year.
The count has climbed in public view for months. Baltimore police said in earlier milestones that officers had recovered more than 730 firearms, then more than 800, and later more than 950 since Jan. 1 before crossing the 1,100 mark. That pace points to a sustained enforcement effort rather than a single operation, and it shows how heavily police have leaned on firearm recovery as a daily public-safety metric.
The geography of the seizures matters as much as the total. Police activity has repeatedly centered on West Baltimore, including the Druid Hill Park area, where officers have also been visible during major public events and other enforcement operations. Those are the same kinds of neighborhoods where residents have long lived with the overlap of gun violence, narcotics cases and repeat police intervention.
BPD and Mayor Brandon Scott have used the midyear numbers to argue that the city is seeing real progress, especially with lower homicide and violent-crime totals. Police have also pushed tips through Metro Crime Stoppers at 1-866-7LOCKUP as part of the effort. The harder test is whether the same blocks that keep turning up guns are also seeing arrests that hold and shootings that fall, as Baltimore continues to measure safety in part by how many firearms officers can keep off its streets.
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